Only 31 of the archipelago’s 836 islands, and islets are inhabited. This means there is a possibility of surreptitious occupation a la “Kargil heights” by a covetous neighbour.
Indonesian submarines and Pakistan
May 11, 2021
An Indonesian submarine that went missing has been found broken into at least three parts, deep in the Bali Sea and all 53 crew members inside the missing KRI Nanggala-402 submarine have died. Death of a human is a heart shattering event and the loss of so many precious lives in a world already beset by a pandemic is soul numbing to say the least. Indonesian President Joko Widodo has rightly described the sailors as Indonesia’s ‘best patriots.’
Pakistan too is full of grief for this tragedy of a brotherly Muslim nation but the tragedy of the submarine has hit close to the nation as it has had a special relation with the Indonesian submarine fleet. Many remember the help Indonesia once gave to Pakistan in the wake of the 1965 war by sending submarines and naval boats to Karachi. While they had reached Karachi after the end of hostilities but the generosity of the gesture cannot be denied.